Taking Charge: How African Women Are Making Major Gains

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/women-play-increasingly-important-role-in-african-life-and-politics-a-937146.html



Women in Africa are making great strides in politics and business, and are considered more reliable partners for international aid projects than their male counterparts. Welcome to what the African Union calls the "African Women's Decade."

Taking Charge: How African Women Are Making Major Gains
By Bartholomäus Grill
December 05, 2013 – 03:10 PM

~snip~

The woman places her hands on her hips and smiles at the crowd. Then she begins speaking. She attacks the president, rattles off the latest corruption scandals and sharply criticizes the new Protection of Information bill that curbs press freedoms. "We must be alert, so that South Africa doesn't become a police state," she says.

The audience -- primarily older and white -- seems bowled over by this clever and eloquent young black South African woman.

Wherever she speaks in public, the nation takes notice. Her name is Lindiwe Mazibuko, and, at 33, she is the opposition leader in South Africa's National Assembly. She is the first black woman to hold that office in the history of country's overwhelmingly male-dominated parliament.

Mazibuko is liberal, pragmatic and courageous, and embodies a new type of female African politician. She is a role model for all African women who desire a voice in shaping the future of their continent.